Familial Love
by Toa Karou
Summary: Philip ponders the meaning of 'Family'. In response to the KR Double 3 Keyword Challenge by MysticFireBlood.


Yeah, I'm taking a shot at the 3 Keyword Challenge by MysticFireBlood. I've never done anything like this, so this might be interesting! Yes, it's been a few days since I read the message (I've been procrastinating a lot lately, haven't I?), but anyway, here's my entry!

It's really short, I know. But frankly, I think if this were any longer, it wouldn't have the simplicity I wanted this story to have. Remember: Simplicity is the key.

_Italics: contents of the book_ (taken from Wikipedia article on Familial Love)

**1st challenge: Keyword: **Love; **2nd Keyword: **Family; **3rd Keyword:** Shotaro

**Disclaimer: If I owned Kamen Rider, Kabuto would have had a more exciting ending. (not that I'm complaining)  
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"Begin lookup. Keyword: Family."

Bookshelves began to disappear from sight, but not much. Philip frowned. Currently, there were more than a million related searches. He did not have any more keywords to use either, due to his limited knowledge of the subject.

It all began before the first fight against the Money Dopant. When Shotaro mentioned the word "family" through the stag phone, he suddenly froze up, causing them to lose sight of the dopant. His search on his own family had resulted in nothing, just what did that mean?

As he strolled through the endless corridor of bookshelves, Philip noticed a seemingly insignificant brown book simply titled "Love". Curious, he picked it up and flipped through its contents.

_In sociology, storge is a type of affinity or natural affection felt between members of a group bound by common ancestry or blood ties, or through friendship and care._

'Friendship? How can friends be family? They are not related by blood.' Curious, he continued reading the article.

_The cultural ideal of familial love is one that is committed, unconditional, selfless, emotionally full, and reciprocally returned by the other._

_It is not necessary for anybody to be actually related by blood relationship to develop this type of love towards anyone. Simply, it can be felt towards any one with whom one is sharing one's time._

Upon reading this, Philip's mind flashed back to the times he spent with Shotaro. A few in particular brought about strange emotions...

Flashback

It was on very rare occasions that Philip ever left the Narumi Detective Agency. However, that day, Philip was having a really bad case of cabin fever, so after much begging, Shotaro finally agreed to let Philip go out, as long as he came along. Eager to leave his 'prison', Philip excitedly grabbed Shotaro by the arm and dragged him all the way to a nearby park at Fuuto Central.

Near an open field, the detectives spotted a group of children playing with a fist-sized ball, a wooden bat and giant gloves. Philip quickly identified this sport as baseball, which he had read about for one of their previous cases. Though he had read everything about baseball, Philip found that watching the actual game was much more exciting than reading about it.

Seeing Philip's interest in baseball, Shotaro excused himself to run back to their office. Within minutes, he reappeared with a similar ball and mitt to the ones which the children were using.

"Shotaro, where did you get these?"

Shotaro offered a slight smile. "Thought you might want to put that knowledge to practise."

For the next few hours, Shotaro taught the young man how to play a simple game of baseball. Despite Philip's protest that they were not doing what he read about, Shotaro patiently guided Philip and showed him the correct postures. Philip never felt this much fun, probably even before he lost his memories.

While attempting to catch the ball, Philip accidentally tripped and fell onto the grass. When he sat up, he found that his right knee had been cut by a sharp-edged rock sitting among the grass, hidden from plain sight. Sure, he had suffered worse injuries before, but the stabbing pain caused by the fairly deep cut rendered him unable to stand properly.

Upon seeing this, Shotaro rushed over to Philip with his handkerchief in hand. He pressed the piece of cloth to the wound and when the bleeding finally stopped, Shotaro carried Philip on his back all the way back, not once complaining of any discomfort he could have felt.

Flashback #2

It was the start of winter. The temperature was dropping even lower every day. Unfortunately, there wasn't any heating in the hanger, which was made worse due to the metallic walls and furniture, especially in the middle of the night. While doing research on a recent Dopant case, Philip noticed that he couldn't hold his arm still when writing on the whiteboards. He felt uncomfortably cold and was shivering all over, unable to focus on the subject of research.

Suddenly, a fuzzy, warm blanket was wrapped around him from behind. Shotaro grasped Philip's shoulders and slowly guided him away from the boards, which were already overfilling with information gathered from the Gaia Library.

"That's enough for now, Philip. We can continue this tomorrow, you should be sleeping now."

Philip tried to resist, but to no avail. Before he was aware of it, he was in his bed with the same blanket covering him. Pouting, Philip tried to fight off the urge to sleep, just to prove to Shotaro that he could still continue his research. However, he felt his consciousness slipping away as he seemed to sink further into the warm cocoon which the blanket presented.

Just before he fell asleep, he thought he heard Shotaro whisper "Good night, partner" right as the lights went out.

End Flashback

Snapping back to reality, Philip continued to ponder the meaning behind the word 'family'. The way Shotaro acted towards him... was it simply because Narumi Sokichi had left him under Shotaro's care, or was it out of genuine concern?

With a sigh, Philip got up from his bed and walked over to Shotaro, who was watching live footage of the Million Colosseo on the Stag Phone. He took a quick glance at the tiny screen before doing a few quick calculations in his head.

"That's no use. It's red 36."

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Yup, this takes place during episode 4, after Philip's short argument with Shotaro and before Philip watches Yuko on the Stag Phone with Shotaro.

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome! ^^

-Toa-


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